Ameera straightened her back at Cam’s name. “Of course,” Sephone said, breaking into a jog across the platform and disappearing into the nearest tower. She tossed one glance over her shoulder at the commander before disappearing.
Is she still mad? Ameera asked.
In a hot, want to fuck about it, kind of way, Astra thought back, enjoying the caught breath in her friend’s chest.
The commander looked between them but thought better about intervening.
“The Fire Queen returns!” Cameren called as she left the tower, pulling a velvet robe tighter across her slender frame. Her long, midnight-black curls were twisted into dozens of braids, tied off with quartz beads of all sorts of pinks and blues. “And she brought a treat.” Cam’s eyes slipped over Ameera. “And a man,” she said, unable to keep the word from tilting into a shocked question.
“Sorry for the late-night surprise,” Astra offered.
“It’s probably best this way, fewer eyes around. You should take them to your tower. There’s hardly anyone there these days.”
Astra nodded, though it stung to hear it. Her tower was overflowing with women when she’d left. She gestured to the sapphire spire closest to them, a steep staircase winding in a spiral leading up several stories. Salt from the breeze off the Empyrean clung to the facets carved into the walls as Astra led them to the top floor through a smooth moonstone door, much like the ones in Lunaria.
She’d opened her door to hundreds of women without hesitation at all hours of the night, but shoving the stone inward and taking in her home with the commander behind her sent a flurry of blues and purples across her chest, the vulnerability foreign.
The entry was dark, too dark, as she stumbled against an altar table she’d left covered in dried florals. She sighed and stilled her breath, letting a whisper of heat leave her fingers before touching them to the sconces in the hall, following a trail of bronze lights to her densely furnished study she’d left in quite a state. Books and letters lay scattered across her desk. A bottle of moonshine was still out on her coffee table. She lit the lanterns around the room and pulled the glass doors open to her balcony, letting the cool night air flow through the silky white curtains. The study gave way to several other rooms, usually inhabited by various women who didn’t feel like walking home after a few too many drinks and listening to Cam’s wild stories all night, or Sephone’s long, olive fingers dancing across the harp tucked in the corner.
Gods, she thought, I miss it here.
“You can stay in that room,” Astra gestured to a door off the study and then to the one across the hall. “That’s mine.”
Lux shrugged his tense shoulders, setting his eyes on the sofa in the middle of the study. “I can sleep here. Ameera can take the bedroom.”
Astra mumbled as she straightened up piles of books, “I think Ameera will find other arrangements.” She tilted her head toward the balcony, where Luxuros could see two silhouettes through tangled curtains move into one another.
“Oh,” he said quietly. “I suppose I could have pieced that together.”
Astra watched their long limbs twist around one another, a rosy glow blossoming between them and dissolving into a violet layer of yearning. She felt something rise within her as she watched, a pain scraping at the inside of her ribs.
“They’re never ready for each other at the same time. It’s complicated.”
“It always is,” Luxuros responded as he sank into the sofa.
Astra sat across from him, flipping a set of glasses over on a metallic tray and pulling the cork in the moonshine bottle out with her teeth. She poured them each a healthy glass.
“Am I allowed to ask you questions?” Luxuros leaned back, crossing one leg over his knee as he sipped the liquid fire.
“Am I allowed to ignore the ones I don’t like the answers to?”
“I have questions first,” Cam said, slinking back into the study. She sat on the arm of Astra’s chair, plucking the glass from her hands and throwing the moonshine back before pouring another glass. “Namely, is this the king of yours I keep hearing so much about?”
Astra choked on a laugh, sitting straighter as she explained. “No, Cam, this is Luxuros, Commander to the king of Mercury. Luxuros, this is Cameren, one of the leaders here and, most days, one of my best friends.”
Cam rolled her eyes but draped an arm around Astra’s shoulders. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Luxuros. I assume those twin scars on your palms are Astra’s way of ensuring I didn’t have you arrested upon entry?”
Luxuros only nodded.
“Excellent.”
“The commander can be trusted,” Astra assured her. “He went with us to Ellume to investigate some strange happenings.”
“The rebels?” Cam asked.
“I—” Astra pouted. “Am I the only person in the court who didn’t know about the Novas?”
Cam shook her head. “No, of course not. But the commander’s cuff,” She pointed to the leather band around Luxuros’s wrist, emblazoned with runes Astra never did understand. “I’ve seen them in documentation from the Venusian Court. Daria came and had one tattooed on her arm a few months ago. What the Nether did she do to Riverion, by the way?”
